Archives in the Classroom and Community: Transforming Teacher Education through Critical Archival Engagement

• In Event: Transformative Practices in Teacher Education: Lessons from the U.S. and China

Abstract

This project bridges archival studies and teacher education by creating collaborative spaces for teachers, archivists, and community members to engage with primary sources. It aims to develop critical historical thinking skills in educators by centering multi-perspectival analysis of archival materials; co-create culturally sustaining K-12 curricula using community-engaged methods; and address systemic gaps in archival literacy by fostering sustained dialogue between educators and information professionals. Participants interrogate whose knowledge is privileged within historical narratives, while developing pedagogical tools to teach archives in K-12 classrooms.


Grounding our work in critical curriculum theory (Apple, 2004, 2014), we challenge notions of archives as neutral repositories, instead framing them as sites of ideological contestation. Culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris, 2012) informs our approach to curriculum co-creation, while Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth guides our engagement with community knowledge systems. Through educator-archivist partnerships, our study advocates for moving beyond tokenistic document inclusion toward transformative historical inquiry (Barton & Levstik, 2004; Garcia, 2017; Miller et al., 2024).


We have designed workshops where teachers analyze archival collections (e.g., Detroit’s 1967 Uprising documents) using guided inquiry (5Ws framework: Who, What, Where, When, and Why + “Wonder”). Participants develop lesson/unit plans through collaborative dialogue with archivists. Data includes: (1) pre/post-workshop surveys assessing archival literacy growth; (2) analysis of over 50 teacher-developed curricula plans; and (3) written reflections on historical thinking development. Triangulation of these datasets allows us to measure both pedagogical shifts and structural barriers in archival engagement.


The project demonstrates transformative impacts on participants’ engagement with historical knowledge production through three key dimensions: Critical Historical Consciousness: Participant deepened understandings of history as an interpretive act. Teachers identified archival silences—particularly regarding marginalized community narratives—developing strategies to address these gaps pedagogically. Many redesigned lessons to juxtapose official institutional records with oral histories and community artifacts, challenging dominant narratives. This shift reflects what one participant termed “reading archives against the grain,” demonstrating growth in analyzing power structures embedded in historical documentation. Community-Embedded Knowledge Production: The collaborative workshop model fostered dynamic exchanges where community members’ experiences informed archival interpretation. Participants reported how intergenerational dialogues through archives reshaped their approach to sourcing. Lesson plans increasingly incorporated “living archives” (family photographs, protest ephemera) alongside institutional collections, creating curricula that validated community memory as legitimate historical evidence. Pedagogical Praxis of Resistance: The most significant outcome emerged in how participants translated critical archival engagement into creative classroom practice, such as counter-mapping, and dialogic historiography. These practices disrupt the traditional archive-classroom hierarchy. The project establishes a model where teachers become co-producers—rather than passive consumers—of historical knowledge, and where communities reclaim authority over their own narratives.


This project models an approach to archival pedagogy that disrupts textbook-centric history instruction and demonstrates how cross-disciplinary collaboration can democratize access to primary sources. It provides a replicable framework for leveraging institutional archives as sites of transformative teacher education. By centering critical historiography and community knowledge, we offer concrete tools to combat epistemic injustice in K-12 curricula while expanding the public service mission of archival institutions.

Authors

• Min Yu, Wayne State University

• Christopher B. Crowley, Wayne State University

• Meghan Courtney, University of Michigan

• Dan Golodner, Wayne State University